But Minnesota has not thereby opted to install a corps of political actors on the bench; rather, it has endeavored to preserve the integrity of its judiciary by other means.

Coupled with the Announce Clause in Minnesota’s Code of Judicial Conduct is a provision that prohibits candidates from “mak[ing] pledges or promises of conduct in office other than the faithful and impartial performance of the duties of the office.” Minn. Code of Judicial Conduct, Canon 5(A)(3)(d)(i) (2002).

All parties to this case agree that, whatever the validity of the Announce Clause, the State may constitutionally prohibit judicial candidates from pledging or promising certain results.

Other plaintiffs in the suit, including the MinnesotaRepublicanParty, alleged that, because the clause kept Wersal from announcing his views, they were unable to learn those views and support or oppose his candidacy accordingly.

That is, it guarantees a party that the judge who hears his case will apply the law to him in the same way he applies it to any other party.

Minnesota’s choice to elect its judges, I am persuaded, does not preclude the State from installing an election process geared to the judicial office.

All the parties agree this is the case, because the Minnesota Code contains a so-called "pledges or promises" clause, which separately prohibits judicial candidates from making "pledges or promises of conduct in office other than the faithful and impartial performance of the duties of the office," ibid.

The Minnesota Constitution positively forbids the selection to courts of general jurisdiction of judges who are impartial in the sense of having no views on the law.

The State of Minnesota no doubt was concerned, as many citizens and thoughtful commentators are concerned, that judicial campaigns in an age of frenetic fundraising and mass media may foster disrespect for the legal system.

Minnesota is appealing the 8th Circuit opinion to the Supreme Court in hopes of defending Canon 5.

RepublicanParty decision might encourage a greater diversity of candidates to run for office, highlight the important policy and political role the judiciary has in the state, and bring needed accountability to the courts.

RepublicanParty decision could be seen as a healthy and important injection of democracy.

The RepublicanParty dominated Minnesota politics from the 1860s through the 1920s, except for a period around the turn of the century.

Founded in North Dakota with the initial aim of gaining control of the RepublicanParty in that state, the league moved its headquarters to St. Paul and competed in the 1918 elections under the name Farmer-Labor Party, hastily adopted to attract what party leaders hoped would be its two main constituencies.

The decline of the party in the late 1930s was hastened by the rise of Republican Harold Stassen, an ardent internationalist, who won the governorship in 1938 and twice won reelection.

The Minnesota Supreme Court has adopted a canon of judicial conduct that prohibits a candidate for a judicial office from announc[ing] his or her views on disputed legal or political issues (hereinafter announce clause).

The Eighth Circuit concluded, and the parties do not dispute, that the proper test to be applied to determine the constitutionality of such a restriction is strict scrutiny, under which respondents have the burden to prove that the clause is (1) narrowly tailored, to serve (2) a compelling state interest.

The First Amendment does not permit Minnesota to leave the principle of elections in place while preventing candidates from discussing what the elections are about.

That Americans value and should preserve their feeling of national strength and pride, and at the same time share with people everywhere a desire for peace and freedom and the extension of human rights throughout the world.

The RepublicanParty is the best vehicle for translating these ideals into positive and successful principles of government.

In May 1996, a delegate to a Republican convention filed a complaint with the Lawyers Board questioning the propriety of Wersal's presence at Republican gatherings and his committee's solicitation of a RepublicanParty endorsement.

The district court found that the restrictions on the candidates' speech was "narrowly tailored" to serve the compelling state interest in maintaining the independence and impartiality of the judiciary, and therefore did not violate the 1st or 14th Amendment.

The Minnesota Supreme Court did the same, and in May 2000, Wersal and the RepublicanParty appealed to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.

In a Republican Form of Government, the Legislature is the source of lawmaking, policy and oversight.

George Bush is our nation's first MBA President, and it shows -- the national Republicanparty (the Federal Government for that matter) is tending toward being run as one giant corporation.

The primary election is both an opportunity for more moderates and independent thinkers to represent the MinnesotaRepublicanparty to voters, and an chance to put the current course of the Republicanparty up to a vote.

In response to the advisory opinion, the RepublicanParty of Minnesota, along with others, filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, in February of 1998.

These include challenges to the ban on attendance and speaking at political party gatherings; the ban on judicial candidates identifying their political party; the ban on judicial candidates and their committees seeking, accepting, or using political party endorsements; and the ban on judicial candidates personally soliciting campaign contributions.

Judicial elections will remain nonpartisan in the state of Minnesota and the prohibition on judicial candidates attending and speaking at political party gatherings; identifying their political party; seeking, accepting, or using political party endorsements; or soliciting campaign contributions, will remain in effect.

www.courts.state.mn.us /lprb/02bbarts/bb0202.html (1546 words)

Minnesota Republican Watch » Republican Party of Minnesota(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-10)

This morning, Minnesota Democrats Exposed put up a new post trumpeting the dismissal of a campaign finance complaint related to MDE author Michael Brodkorb's former employment by the RepublicanParty of Minnesota.

Shortly before Michael Brodkorb was unmasked as the author of Minnesota Democrats Exposed, a post appeared on MDE that reproduced a press release from the Campaign for St. Paul's Future, an attack group that paid Brodkorb to perform research.

The reasons the Minnesota Supreme Court adopted these rules in 1996 were simple: keep money and party influence out of the judiciary.

After the election, Wersal and the MinnesotaRepublicans filed suit in U.S. District Court against Verna Kelly, the chairwoman of the Minnesota Board on Judicial Standards.

In Texas, where party designations are allowed to be used on ballots and in campaigns, seven justices have received more than $9 million from parties linked directly to cases on their dockets, according to the Money In Politics study.

docket.medill.northwestern.edu /archives/000036.php (1448 words)

Capitol Notebook: Republican Party of Minnesota chairman distances party from actions of Cooper(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-10)

The RepublicanParty of Minnesota Chairman Ron Eibensteiner today (Feb. 12) issued a letter distancing the party from the recent political actions of former party chairman Bill Cooper.

The Independence Party of Minnesota jumped on Cooperís letter as symbolic of the RepublicanPartyís close-tent mentality.

Bill Walsh, party spokesman, said Cooperís letter was not well received by the party delegates.

Republican Party of Minnesota(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-10)

RepublicanParty of Minnesota Chairman Ron Carey today unveiled a new statewide radio ad campaign targeting DFL senators for blocking a vote on the marriage amendment and embracing Dean Johnson as their leader.

There is no doubt that Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson made a serious error when he alluded to a group of New London-Spicer area ministers that he'd had conversations with Minnesota Supreme Court justices over whether there may be a will within the court to overturn the state's law which prohibits same-sex marriages.

Minnesota's judiciary must not remain clouded - we want and need to believe that our justices are not predisposing issues before they are even asked to make judgment on them.

www.mngopwatch.com /rpmns.html (1789 words)

Republican Party of Minnesota v. White (2002) [01-521](Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-10)

Minnesota's Constitution provides for the selection of all state judges by popular election.

The announcement clause of the Minnesota Supreme Court's canon of judicial conduct prohibits a candidate from announcing his or her views on disputed legal or political issues.

While running for associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, Gregory Wersal filed suit, seeking a declaration that the announce clause violates the First Amendment and an injunction against its enforcement.

Think what that means: Minnesota was one of only 10* states to favor Michael Dukakis in 1988 and the only state to pick Mondale over Ronald Reagan in 1984.

Republican politicians and talk radio hosts howled their indignation, and the event quickly gained more infamy than it probably deserved.

Republicans seem to take his run so seriously that state chair Eibensteiner is already calling Franken a "carpetbagger" from New York, which is where Franken was born, although he grew up near Minneapolis.

SSRN-Judicial Campaign Codes After Republican Party of Minnesota v. White by Richard Briffault(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-10)

In nineteen states, most judges are initially appointed but must later go before the voters in a so-called retention election - in which there is no competing candidate but voters are asked simply whether they approve of the incumbent - in order to keep their positions.

Most strikingly, virtually all states that provide for judicial elections also impose campaign codes that restrict the election-related activities of judicial candidates to a far greater extent than these states regulate the campaigns of executive and legislative candidates.

White, a closely divided Supreme Court invalidated the provision of the Minnesota Code of Judicial Conduct that precluded ju-dicial candidates from "announcing" their views concerning disputed legal and political questions.

DFLSenate » Republican Party of Minnesota(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-10)

But his allies at the RepublicanParty of Minnesota and the National Republican Senatorial Committee have been launching negative attacks for months, and the Kennedy campaign itself has long been running a negative campaign against Amy Klobuchar almost everywhere but the airwaves.

Today, the RepublicanParty of Minnesota's humorless communications team issued a press release attacking the DFL Party for releasing a holiday coloring book highlighting Mark Kennedy's ties to big oil.

When Klobuchar visited Brainerd, Republicans responded not by praising her for making an effort to hear Minnesotans' views on this issue, but by attacking her for daring to listen to people's concerns.

536 U. The question presented in this case is whether the First Amendment permits the Minnesota Supreme Court to prohibit candidates for judicial election in that State from announcing their views on disputed legal and political issues.

*fn24 In the absence of the Announce Clause, other components of the Minnesota Code of Judicial Conduct designed to maintain the nonpartisan character of the State's judicial elections would similarly unravel.

A RepublicanParty of Minnesota staff member's car was vandalized on September 23 due to the fact that she has a Bush bumper sticker

The RepublicanParty is looking into a possible $1,000 reward for any information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the men.

Randy Wanke, communications director for the MinnesotaRepublicanParty, said there may be no empirical evidence of an increase in thefts but the "tone" of the incidents appears to have become more hateful.